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 Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ecological Indicators
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind

Original Articles

The evolution and research framework of carbon footprint: Based on the T

perspective of knowledge mapping
⁎
Yi Yang , Guanfei Meng
School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710054, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Carbon footprint can monitor the degree of human stress on the ecological environment and has been widely
Bibliometric analysis used to measure the level of climate change and sustainable development. To systematically sort out and analyse
Research hotspots the development history of carbon footprint research, a keyword co-appearance and literature co-citation
Knowledge bases knowledge mapping has been drawn, the carbon footprint research hotspots, knowledge bases, research fron-
Research frontiers
tiers, and research features have been analysed, from Web of Science core database since 2008 as a data source.
From the review, by establishing a carbon footprint research framework from the perspectives of both gov-
ernment and market, the problems of regional environmental governance efficiency, fairness mechanisms, and
carbon emission rights are analysed under the government-led and market-led approaches and reviewed the
development of carbon footprint research methods. In addition, the boundary and the applicability of the carbon
footprint accounting methods has been discussed. The results show: (1) China is increasingly becoming an ideal
for carbon footprint research due to its varied and complicated problem of climate and environment. (2) Future
research hotspots will focus more on carbon sinks, land use changes, energy consumption, industrial ecology,
buildings, livestock, and international trade. (3) Half-life, burst, and centrality indicate that the knowledge bases
of carbon footprint are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios,
ISO14040 (2006) and Livestock’s long shadow. (4) The latest international fronts of carbon footprint research
focus on the carbon footprint generated in international trade, innovations of methods and discrimination and
definition of the theory concept, for example, the expression of carbon footprint means the use of either eco-
logical land area units or physical weight units. (4) The research features are mainly concerned with the carbon
footprint application of the multi-region input-output model in international trade, multi-scale assessment of
human impact on the environment and sustainable development, and resource-environment effects associated
with food loss and waste.

1. Introduction thanks to international conventions. In 2008, the United Nations De-

Carbon Footprint (CF), as an integrated and unified environmental
management and evaluation indicator, has become a common method
to measure both direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
during production and consumption (British Standards Institution,
2008a; Wiedmann and Minx, 2007). As a tool for evaluating GHG
emissions, the CF methodology has received substantial attention,
velopment Programme (UNDP) released the 2007–2008 human devel-
opment report, calling for international solutions to climate change in
the 21st century. If we rely only on market forces to solve environ-
mental problems and it is difficult to cope with the increasingly severe
global climate change situation, the global climate change problem may
become the “largest and most widespread market failure in human
history”, it is urgent to meet this challenge to adopt effective policies to

Abbreviations: CF, represents carbon footprint; EF, represents ecological footprint; LF, represents land footprint; WF, represents water footprint; MRIO, represents
multi-region input-output; GHG, represents greenhouse gas; UNDP, represents United Nations Development Programme; UNFCCC, represents United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change; EU, represents European Union; USA, represents The United States of America; UK, represents the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland; KCA, represents keyword co-appearance analysis; ACA, represents author co-appearance analysis; LCA, represents life cycle
assessment; CAS, represents Chinese Academy of Sciences; IPCC, represents Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; ISO, represents international organization
for standardization; FAO, represents Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; WoS, represents Web of Science; PLCA, represents process-based LCA;
LLR, represents log likelihood ratio; CBP, represents consumption-based principle; PBP, represents production-based principle
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yangyi_nwpu@xaut.edu.cn (Y. Yang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106125
Received 21 March 2019; Received in revised form 12 January 2020; Accepted 18 January 2020
Available online 31 January 2020
1470-160X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Yang and G. Meng
Fig. 1. Technology roadmap is based on the analytical results of Citespace, the structure characteristics, research hotspots, knowledge bases, research frontiers, and
research features of carbon footprint research are revealed by graphs.
reduce GHG emissions and correct market failures (Spash, 2007). The
world must not only reach a consensus agreement on the limits of GHG
emissions but also establish a national restriction strategy and detailed
carbon emission reduction paths (UNDP, 2008). Since the UNDP report,
the world has paid great attention to climate change and promoted a
low-carbon economy. We hope to achieve global sustainable develop-
ment through low-carbon economic models and low-carbon lifestyles
(Zhang, 2008; Li et al., 2019). In 2009, after the Copenhagen World
Climate Conference discussed the follow-up plan after the expiration of
the Kyoto Protocol first-phase commitment, countries clearly identified
that the focus of the problem was mainly on “sharing responsibility”
and proposed a long-term global action goal for limiting temperature
rise to 2 °C higher than before the industrial revolution. The article of
Burke et al (2018) in Nature proposes that, if global warming is limited
to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels rather than the more common 2 °C,
there is a 75% chance of reducing economic losses and a 60% chance of
global generation of 20 trillion dollars of economic benefits. On No-
vember 4, 2016, The Paris Agreement came into effect. This is the third
landmark international law in history in response to climate change,
following on from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. These laws have not only laid
the foundation for the formation of global climate governance after
2020 but also point the way for human society to enter a new way of
life and production. Since these, CF has been applied and promoted
internationally (Chambers et al., 2007; Mancini et al., 2016; Song et al.,
2016).
The Chinese government attaches great importance to the issue of
global warming. In 2007, the National Plan for Combating Climate
Change formulated by China was the first national plan promulgated by
developing countries to respond to changes in climate. Later, China
formulated and revised The Energy Conservation Act and The Circular
Economy Promotion Law, has gradually established a national legal
system for environmental governance. To successfully achieve the
“hard target” pursued globally in The Paris Agreement, China has pro-
posed in its “National Independent Contribution” that CO2 emissions
will reach a peak around 2030, carbon emissions per unit of Gross
domestic product (GDP) will fall by between 60% and 65% compared to
2005. Non-fossil energy accounts for approximately 20% of primary
energy consumption (Policy Research Office of the National
Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of
China, 2015). Since 2013, Chinese coal production has been declining
year after year. In 2014, coal consumption saw its first decline in 21st
2
Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
century. From 2014 to 2016, coal consumption decreased yearly, by
2.9%, 3.7%, and 4.7%, respectively (National Energy Administration,
2017). In 2017, China implemented environmental protection inspec-
tions covering the whole country and used the inspection results as an
important basis for both assessing and appointing leading cadres. The
Environmental Protection Tax Law, implemented on January 1, 2018, not
only can promote the internalisation of environmental external costs
but also has important implications for the establishment of green
production and consumption systems. Although ecological construction
and environmental protection in China have received attention from
the central government, there are still numerous issues as a result of the
consideration given by sub-provincial-level governments to GDP
growth performance. For example, the development of energy, in-
dustrial, and chemical industries rely heavily on mineral resources,
such as coal and petroleum, accelerating urbanisation lacks a “multiple
rules merging into one” coordination mechanism, and population ac-
cumulation and the development of industrial enterprises in urban
agglomerations accelerate pollutant emissions (Sun et al., 2019; Li and
Lin, 2019). These issues have attracted attention from Chinese re-
searchers. On the one hand, the central government attaches full im-
portance to ecological construction, ecological rehabilitation, and en-
vironmental protection. On the other hand, ecological damage that
conflicts with the will of the state occurs in some local areas, particu-
larly in ecologically vulnerable and sensitive areas. Hence, Chinese
researchers have used the CF as a monitoring indicator for character-
ising climate change, also have examined the economic and social
factors causing changes in the CF (Hou et al., 2014; Wang and Ma,
2018).
The previous reviews were basically completed by either subjective
processing or meta-analysis. This type of review, which is based solely
on words or numbers, is ultimately less intuitive than are graphics. In
terms of information expression, the image is better than the table, and
the table is better than the text (Xin et al., 2014). Citespace, the visual
information analysis software developed by Chen (2006) from Drexel
University (USA), completely overturns traditional research methods.
Therefore, such a train of thought is constructed (Fig. 1). A CF research
framework is built. This study not only systematically summarises the
development process and trends of CF research but also lays a scientific
foundation for CF research. It also has certain practical significance in
enabling environmental managers and government decision-makers to
correctly grasp the concept of CF and effectively use the CF method to
propose scientific measures for reducing emissions, to deal with issues
Y. Yang and G. Meng
including climate warming, management of natural resources, and re-
gional ecological governance.
2. Methodology
2.1. Research hypothesis
Citespace, as a knowledge management tool, is a visual analysis
based on the papers in a certain field of research published within a
certain time (Li and Sun, 2014). It uses the functions such as co-citation
analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and institution and author collabora-
tion analysis (Chen et al., 2015; Dhital and Rupakheti, 2019). This
makes it possible to process massive scientific literature data, which
helps us to find hidden laws and patterns in the data, thus providing a
clear context for the development of the discipline. Citespace gradually
developed along the context of “bibliometrics, citation analysis, co-ci-
tation analysis, co-citation visualization”. Thus, its core principle is co-
citation analysis. Small (1973) first proposed the concept of literatures
co-citation as a research method to measure the citation relationship
between literatures. White and Griffith (1981) extended the literature
co-citation to the authors, forming a bibliometrics for author co-citation
analysis. To facilitate the analysis of in this study, the following hy-
potheses are proposed.
Hypothesis 1: When two authors’ literature is simultaneously cited
by the third author’s paper, then the two authors are defined as co-
citing. The higher the rate of co-citations, the more relevant their re-
search topics are and the closer their academic relationships are (Small,
1973). The significance of this hypothesis is that co-citation analysis
can group literatures based on the similarity of studies and classify
authors.
Hypothesis 2: The core topics of the research field can be identified
by analysing each set of literature, thereby the academic community
within the similar subject area can be identified (Pilkington and
Meredith, 2009). From a practical perspective, if there are enough au-
thors to recognize this co-citation relationship, then this relationship
possesses increasingly scientific significance.
Hypothesis 3: By identifying co-citation clusters and improving the
timeliness of co-citation network visualization, the research focus or
frontier can be quantitatively identified (Chen, 2006).
However, the use of Citespace for data collection and processing has
certain limitations. First, subjective judgments are still required in co-
citation analysis relationships for positive or reverse citations. Such
judgments have a preference attribute, which can lead to differences in
perspective. Second, in order to maintain the completeness of the lit-
erature data, even if the author carefully selects keywords or other topic
terms, it may contain literature that is not related to the subject.
Although subjectively screening each literature can filter out literature
that is not related to the research, it is inevitable that some important
documents will be ignored due to improper setting of keywords or topic
terms. Third, the composition of the knowledge graph nodes and their
attributes or relationships is defined according to the default rules of co-
citation analysis, thereby the factors affecting the rules will not be
changed over time, which will cause deviations in the bibliometric re-
sults.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Knowledge mapping analysis
When running Citespace, the thresholds of C, CC, and CCV are set to
(2, 2, 20), (4, 3, 30), and (4, 3, 30), respectively, and minimum span-
ning tree and pruning sliced networks are selected as the pruning
method. C represents the lowest cited or frequency of occurrence, CC
represents the collinear or co-citation times in a particular time slice,
and CCV represents the collinearity rate or co-citation rate. The colour
spectrum of the annual ring represents the citation history of the ana-
lysis object, and the overall size of the annual ring reflects the number
3
Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
of times the analysis object is cited. An analysis object is represented by
a node. The larger the node, the more times it is cited within the se-
lected time. The colour spectrum of the tree rings represents the citation
history of an analysis object. The thickness of a tree ring reflects the
number of citations of the analysis object within a given time. A line
connecting two nodes indicates a co-citation relationship between the
two nodes, its colour represents the first time that the two nodes are co-
cited, and its length and thickness represent the strength of the link
between the two nodes. A node encircled by a purple ring has relatively
high (≥0.1) centrality, indicating an extensive connection with other
nodes (Liu, 2017). This type of node is often the focus of concern in the
knowledge domain and is of great significance to node network analysis
(Xin et al., 2014) (This explanation applies to Figs. 4 and 5 and from
Figs. 7–10).
2.2.2. H-index analysis
The H-index was first suggested in 2005 by Hirsch (2005) to eval-
uate the scientific output and academic achievements of scientific re-
searchers. In other words, H articles have been quoted at least H times.
For example, an H-index of 20 indicates that 20 articles have 20 or
more citations. Braun et al. (2006) took the lead in extending the H-
index to journal evaluations. As a scientific evaluation index, the H-
index combines two important factors of citation frequency and lit-
erature quantity, which effectively reduces the actual influence of in-
dividual extremely high citation frequency papers on either authors or
journals. At the same time, the H-index is widely used in many data-
bases and academic search engines. The H-index of this paper uses the
data provided by Web of Science (WoS).
2.3. Data collection
In this study, English literature data were collected from the
Clarivate Analytics ISI WoS website using the following procedure.
First, the WoS website (http://apps.webofknowledge.com) was opened.
Second, the “Web of Science Core Collection” that includes the Science
Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index, Conference
Proceedings Citation Index-Science, Current Chemical Reactions and
Index Chemicus was selected in the “Select a Database” tab on the left-
hand side of the webpage. In addition, in the “Basic Search” tab,
“carbon footprint” was entered in the “Topic” section and “2008–2018”
was entered in the “Years Published” section. Then, by clicking the
“Search” button, 7204 search results were obtained from 2008 to 2018.
Subsequently, the search results were refined using the “Refine Results”
feature of the WoS Database by selecting “Article”, “Review”, and
“Proceedings Paper” in the “Document Types” tab. Overall, 7021 ef-
fective records were obtained. Currently, WoS only supports an export
of up to 500 records each time. In the export feature, “Save to Other File
Formats” was selected and clicked. A “Send to File” dialog box then
popped up. In the “Record” section, “1 and 500” were entered. In the
“Record Content” section, “Full Record and Cited References” was se-
lected. In the “File Format” section, “Plain Text” was selected. After
clicking the “Send” button, 500 records were downloaded. In addition,
the records were saved in the format required by Citespace (e.g.,
download_1-500 and download_501-1000). Table 1 summarises the
acquired search results.
3. Results
3.1. The characteristics’ analysis of CF research
3.1.1. The characteristics of author group
The Citespace software is used to analyse the author of the article to
obtain author co-appearance analysis (ACA). There are 92 nodes and 36
lines in the map, and the network density is 0.0086. The top authors of
published papers in the international community are Klemes and Tan,
published 34 and 31 times, respectively. Internationally, the research
Y. Yang and G. Meng Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Table 1 Table 2
Retrieval results and strategies to acquire data. The performance of the top 10 most productive authors.
Retrieve account Retrieve results and contents Rank TPa H-index Author

Database Web of Science core collection 1 34 13 Klemes JJ

Retrieval mode TS = (“carbon footprint”) 2 31 13 Tan RR
Publication type Article; Proceeding papers; Review 3 30 20 Lenzen M
Year 2008–2018 4 25 18 & 14 Hertwich EG &Wiedmann T
Retrieval time January 3, 2019 5 23 11 Varbanov PS
Retrieve results 7021 6 22 12 Ahamd S
7 21 10 & 10 & 14 Chen B & Cucek L& Wood R
Note: TS- Retrieve the subject words, including the title, abstract, and key- 8 19 15 & 15 & 9 Li Y& Peters GP& Vazquez-Rowe I
words of the article. 9 18 12 & 10 & 8 & 11 Coops NC & Feng KS & Foo DCY & Heinonen J
& 12 & 11 & Hubacek K & Kucukvar M
10 17 14 Chen GQ
teams in close contact with CF research and cooperation are the aca-
demic team of Klemes, Tan, Foo, and Varbanov, the academic team of a
TP: The total publications of one author during 2008–2017.
Hertwich and Kanemoto, the academic team of Hubacek and Feng, and
the academic team of Vazquez-Rowe and Quispe (Fig. 2). From the Table 3
perspective of the author groups, the inter-citation relations between The performance of the top 10 most productive journals.
the author groups are weak, and the academic connections of the dif-
Journal TPa %b IFc H-index
ferent teams are also weak.
The top 10 authors of published papers in the international CF re- Journal of Cleaner Production 496 8.061 5.651 35
search field are listed in Table 2. In the WoS core database, the per- International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 102 1.661 4.195 25
centage of distribution frequency of all authors in the distribution fre- Applied Energy 100 1.628 7.900 24
Sustainability 92 1.498 2.075 12
quency of the top 10 authors was approximately 7.0%, while the Environmental Science & Technology 79 1.286 6.653 30
percentage of distribution frequency of authors with more than 10 Journal of Industrial Ecology 75 1.221 4.356 19
times’ distribution frequency accounted for 18.4% of the total dis- Ecological Indicators 68 1.107 3.983 18
tribution frequency of all authors. This shows that the distribution of Energy Policy 64 1.042 4.039 23
Renewable & Sustainable Eenergy Reviews 64 1.042 9.184 19
specific authors is highly concentrated in the field of CF research. The
Science of The Total Environment 59 0.961 4.610 16
research of the core author lays the scientific foundation for CF re-
search. a
TP: The total publications of one journal during 2008–2018.
b
The percentage of the total publications of the journal.
c
The journal’s impact factor is from Journal Citation Reports in 2018.
3.1.2. The characteristic of different journals
Table 3 shows the top 10 journals published in the International CF

Fig. 2. The authors group of International carbon footprint research from 2008 to 2018, ACA can identify the publications’ situation of the author and the strength of
cooperation in a subject or field core author (Chen et al., 2017; Han et al., 2016).

4
Y. Yang and G. Meng
Study 2008–2018. The CF theme publications of these journals accounts
for approximately 20.3% of the total CF theme publications of journals,
indicating that the distribution of CF research journals is diverse and
involves subjects such as human geography, sustainable development,
and resource eco-environment, specifically, it involves subject crossing
in many fields. Of the journals included in the WoS core search data-
base, the Journal of Cleaner Production, ranking first, published the most
CF-related papers in the study period, its IF (impact factors) and its H-
index are 5.715 and 35, respectively. The goals of the Journal of Cleaner
Production and Sustainability are all aimed at helping society to become
more sustainable. One of the mainstream approaches to CF research is
life cycle assessment (LCA). The second-ranked journal in terms of
amount of papers published is the International Journal of Life Cycle
Assessment, whose IF and H-index are 3.173 and 25, respectively. It is
the first journal dedicated to LCA methods. LCA has been widely re-
cognised by scholars around the world as a means of assessing the
burden and potential impact of all inputs and outputs on the ecological
environment throughout the life cycle of products, services, and ac-
tivities in a product system. The International Journal of Life Cycle As-
sessment provides scholars with a platform to study both LCA and life
cycle management.
3.1.3. The characteristics of different institutions
The Citespace software was used as the theme of CF to analyse the
international research institutions. The international CF research in-
stitution map has a total of 192 nodes and 48 connections. The network
density is 0.0026, indicating that CF research institutions are mostly
involved in independent research (Fig. 3). Internationally, the Uni-
versity of California System has the highest number of published papers
Fig. 3. International carbon footprint research institutions from 2008 to 2018, institutions appearing at a relatively high frequency are displayed as relatively large
nodes in the visualised cluster knowledge mapping.
5
Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
and the highest H-index ranking, this is followed by the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), the USA Department of Energy, the State
University System of Florida, and the Norwegian of University Science
and Technology. Internationally, the global distribution frequency of
CF research institutions is uneven. The research level in the USA, China,
Norway, UK, France, Australia, and other developed countries is gen-
erally higher (Table 4). The research capacity of other countries and
regions is relatively weak. To a certain extent, the above shows that CF
research capacity is related to the level of economic and social devel-
opment.
Among the developing countries, China is the only country with the
top 10 most influential research institutions. The most representative is
CAS. It is the highest academic institution in natural sciences, the
highest science and technology consultancy organisation, and a com-
prehensive research and development centre for natural sciences and
high technology in China. The Institutes of Geographic Sciences and
Natural Resources Research, the Institute of Cold and Arid Regions
Environmental and Engineering Research, the Shenyang Institute of
Applied Ecology, and other CAS institutions have long organised and
conducted CF-related research.
3.2. Hotspots of CF research
The distribution and evolution of research hotspots can intuitively
demonstrate research themes, research perspectives, and changes in
research methods in different periods. The keywords not only reflect the
focus and core issues of the literature, but also reflect the hot spots and
topics of public interest in a certain period. The use of VOSviewer
software to plot the keyword co-occurrence density map can intuitively
Y. Yang and G. Meng Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Fig. 4. The density view of keywords co-

occurrence, the colour of each point in the
graph represents the density of this item; the
more important the item, the more the
colour is biased toward red, and the less
important the item, the more the colour is
biased toward blue; the redder the regional
density, the higher the frequency of the co-
occurrence of keywords, and the higher the
research hotspot.

Fig. 5. The time-zone view of WoS carbon footprint hot keywords from 2008 to 2018.

6
Y. Yang and G. Meng Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Table 4 CO2 carbon sinks, but they are not protected by international laws,
The performance of the top 10 most productive institutions. because it is widely believed that primitive forests no longer accumu-
Institute Country TPa %b H-index late carbon. Luyssaert et al. (2008) published an article in Nature in
2008, suggesting that the net ecosystem productivity (including the net
University of California System USA 186 3.045 35 carbon balance of forest and soil) in forests over 15–800 years is usually
Chinese Academy of Sciences China 165 2.687 25
positive. Primitive forests can continue to accumulate carbon, which is
United States Department of Energy USA 104 1.694 30
State University System of Florida USA 86 1.4 26
contrary to the long-held view of carbon neutrality. In reducing the CO2
Norwegian of University Science and Norwegian 76 1.238 26 concentration in the atmosphere, 15% of the area of primitive forests is
Technology not considered, although they provide at least 10% of global net eco-
University System of Maryland USA 68 1.107 24 system productivity. Destruction of the primitive forests will lead to the
Centre National De La Recherche France 67 1.091 19
accumulation of large amounts of carbon, and even the carbon in the
Scientifique
University of Leeds UK 67 1.091 22 soil will return to the atmosphere. Most CF measurements and LCA
University of California Berkeley USA 62 1.01 23 guidelines in the past assumed that biomass energy was carbon neutral,
University of Sydney Australia 62 1.01 27 however, researchers gradually realised that biomass fuels are not al-
a
ways carbon neutral. In fact, in some cases, there may be more carbon
TP: The total publications of one institute during 2008–2018.
b emissions from biomass fuels than from fossil fuels. Johnson (2009)
The percentage of the total publications of the institute.
proposed that the application of the “carbon stock change” project in CF
will not only improve the accuracy of the CF measurement but will also
Table 5
be more in line with the reporting requirements of the UNFCCC.
Keywords with the strongest citation bursts.
From 2010 to 2011, there was a rapid transition in CF research
NO. Keyword Strength Begin End 2008–2018 hotspots, and the duration of most of the research hotspots has been
1 forest 6.6855 2008 2009
relatively long. This shows that CF has entered a stage of rapid devel-
2 leaf area index 3.8746 2008 2009 opment after formulating the definitions, evaluation indicators, eva-
3 carbon dioxide 12.6338 2008 2009 luation framework, and evaluation methods. In the keywords at each
4 surface 3.8746 2008 2009 stage, CF and GHG emissions have always been long-standing research
5 exchange 5.8145 2008 2009
hotspots in this field. For example, Hertwich and Peters (2009) mea-
6 water vapor 9.655 2008 2010
7 vegetation 5.6046 2009 2010 sured GHG emissions from the final consumption of goods and services
8 biomass 2.6 2009 2010 in 73 countries and 14 regions and analysed the contribution of 8 ca-
9 international 2.9402 2009 2010 tegories to GHG emissions of buildings, housing, food, clothing, mobi-
trade lity, manufactured goods, services, and trade. Their results show that
10 CO2 5.8536 2008 2011
72% of global GHG emissions was derived from household consump-
11 ecosystem 8.4355 2009 2011
12 productivity 4.4942 2009 2011 tion, 10% from government spending, and 18% from investment. Food
13 lidar 4.8443 2009 2011 accounted for 20% of GHG emissions, with 19% of residential opera-
14 carbon dioxide 3.1767 2009 2011 tions and maintenance, and 17% of liquidity. In developing countries,
emission
food and services account for a relatively large proportion of GHG
15 eddy 15.4905 2008 2012
covariance emissions, while, in developed countries, as income increases, mobility
16 carbon 4.0851 2008 2012 and manufactured goods dominate. Currently emerging research hot-
footprint spots are mainly carbon sinks (Zaki and Latif, 2016), land use change
17 transport 7.5893 2009 2012 (Ali, 2017), energy consumption (Laine et al., 2017), industry ecology
18 soil 7.6387 2011 2012
(Cadarso et al., 2016; Cagiao et al., 2011), buildings (Onat et al., 2014),
19 biofuel 10.3719 2008 2013
20 environment 7.5823 2008 2013 animal husbandry (Patra, 2017; Vida and Tedesco, 2017), and inter-
21 simulation 5.5079 2010 2013 national trade (Liu et al., 2017). This indicates that CF study has begun
22 methane 6.4297 2012 2013 to converge on the multi-scale and multi-level aspects of “ecology-en-
23 greenhouse gas 12.1655 2011 2014 vironment-economy-society”.
24 inventory 9.8049 2013 2014
25 indicator 7.9044 2013 2017 3.3. Knowledge bases of CF research

The knowledge bases analysis of CF provides a research framework

identify the research hotspots in the CF field (Fig. 4). It can be seen that
for later CF researchers. The hypothesis of knowledge bases analysis is
the focus of CF research includes CF, LCA, GHG, and energy. A key-
that the references of the same paper either inherit the same research
words co-occurrence density map can only qualitatively demonstrate
context or have similar research topics. With the increase in the fre-
CF research hotspots and cannot reflect the time-variation law. The
quency of co-cited references, this relationship between various refer-
time zone view (Fig. 5) and the bursts’ table (Table 5) drawn by Cite-
ences is intensified. Through the establishment of a reference network,
space can quantitatively represent different research hotspots and laws
research directions can be summarised, and the development of re-
of change. The data from the WoS core database were imported into
search can be characterised (Xiang et al., 2016). The key documents
Citespace and VOSviewer software, respectively. The keyword type was
that appear in the network can be considered as the knowledge bases of
selected for the node type, and nodes and links were 167 and 303, re-
a subject. The key references have strong influence over a period of
spectively. Then, the Timezone was selected and the software was run
time, and the half-life, burst, and centrality of a node characterise its
to generate a keyword co-appearance analysis (KCA) knowledge map-
“solid”, “striking”, and “critical core” positions, respectively, in the
ping in the CF research area.
citation network. The longer the half-life of a paper, the more solid its
Before 2009, the research hotspots were mainly CF, water, en-
position in the research field. A paper that is cited increasingly within a
vironment, biofuels, LCA, climate-change, and CO2 emissions. Among
certain time has a relatively high burst value and may become both a
these, the burst of carbon dioxide and forest were at the front (Table 5).
central paper and a hot topic for subsequent research. The higher the
This is because the early research hotspots of CF mainly focused on the
centrality of a paper, the more likely it may be to become the key to the
ecological environment, such as the study of carbon emissions from
transition of the fronts in the network (Li et al., 2017). To highlight the
forests, biomass, and bio-energy. Primitive forests can be used as global
knowledge bases of CF research, the first papers of each time slice that

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Y. Yang and G. Meng
Fig. 6. The time-zone view of the cited references.
were cited 50 times were selected for analysis (Fig. 6).
First, according to the half-life analysis, the maximum half-life is the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions
Scenarios (IPCC SRES), with a half-life of 8 (IPCC, 2000). In 1996, the
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) plenary meeting
called for the preparation of the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios,
which responds to the assessment of the IPCC IS92 emission scenario in
1994. It simulates 40 different scenarios, each of which makes different
assumptions about future drivers of GHG pollution, land use and po-
pulation, and economy to reduce the contradiction between existing
knowledge and decision-making needs. The following four points
should be emphasised: first, the potential for technological innovation
is excavated in country, region, and industry, second, attention should
be paid to the country’s economic, social, and legal policies related to
climate change mitigation measures, third, attention should be paid to
the comparability of results, while emphasising the potential of miti-
gation measures and analysis methods of input, fourth, climate change
mitigation measures are evaluated from the perspective of sustainable
development and fairness. About these four points, scholars of CF field
actively responded. For example, Malakahmad et al. (2017) identified
the CF emission standard as a key factor in the municipal solid waste
management system. The IPCC (2006) method was used to evaluate CF
emissions. The result shows that Malaysia should adopt a comprehen-
sive scenario of anaerobic digestion and recycling technology to pre-
vent the risk of unbalanced carbon emissions from waste. In response to
several global warming and ecological construction problems, China
actively promotes the implementation of UNFCCC, The Paris Agreement,
and other international conventions and earnestly fulfils its obligations.
Shanxi is a typical province of coal resource production and
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Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
consumption in China, so energy-saving and emission reduction is ex-
tremely important for it. Zhao et al. (2014) used the methods re-
commended by the IPCC and China’s “Guidelines for the Preparation of
Provincial Greenhouse Gases” to analyse the CF of Shanxi Province
from 1999 to 2010 and assess the carbon emission levels. The results
show that the contribution of energy to CF is above 99%, and the
carbon sequestration effect of vegetation accounts for only approxi-
mately 1%. The per capita and average land CF increased continuously
at an average annual rate of approximately 7%, and the CF per 10 000
Yuan RMB GDP and energy intensity decreased at an average annual
rate of approximately 3%, which indicated that the carbon emission
reduction level and energy efficiency increased year by year. According
to the results of their analysis, Zhao et al. suggest that Shanxi Province
should adjust its industrial and energy structure, develop energy saving
and emission reduction technology, and improve forestry carbon se-
questration. In July 2011, the German government enacted the En-
ergiewende program. By 2022, the use of nuclear power will be com-
pletely stopped. By 2050, 80% of Germany’s electricity will come from
green energy. This plan involves various taxes on energy use. According
to the “dense cities” hypothesis, rural residents consume more energy
than do urban residents and, thus, suffer more from environmental
taxes. This fairness of urban and rural tax distribution may endanger
the environmental reforms in Germany. Gill and Moeller (2018) ana-
lysed the CF differences between urban and rural areas in Germany
based on the German official income and expenditure survey in 2013.
Their results show that there is a clear difference in GHG emissions
between urban and rural areas, while the “dense cities” effect reduces
urban GHG emissions. However, the simplification of households, high
income, and more consumption opportunities are the opposite. Rural
Y. Yang and G. Meng
residents have been directly levied with more environmental taxes
during the implementation of the Energiewende program.
Secondly, according to the burst analysis, the maximum burst is ISO
14040 (2006) (International Organization for Standardization, ISO).
The accounting principles of CF’s LCA method are based on the inter-
national standards ISO 14040 (2006) (ISO, 2006a) and ISO 14044
(2006) (ISO, 2006b). They provide the basic framework and principles
of LCA and technical requirements. Based on these two standards, dif-
ferent levels of CF accounting standards have been developed. For ex-
ample, at the product-level of CF accounting, the internationally re-
presentative standards are PAS2050 (2008) (British Standards
Institution, 2008b), GHG protocol (2011) (WBCSD, 2011), and ISO
14067(2012) (ISO, 2012). Among these, PAS2050 (2008) is the world’s
first product CF method standard that is widely used by companies to
evaluate the GHG emissions of their goods and services. The standards
that are widely used in the world for CF accounting at either the en-
terprise or organisation and either national or regional levels are GHG
protocol (2004) (WRI and WBCSD, 2004), ISO 14064-1 (2006) (ISO,
2006c), and IPCC (2006). GHG protocol (2004) and ISO 14064-1
(2006) mainly take account of the CF at either the enterprise or the
organisational level, while IPCC (2006) provides measurement of GHG
at either the national or the regional level, which they have become an
internationally recognised and common method for carbon emission
assessment. IPCC (2006) divides the research area into four sectors: the
energy sector, the industrial processes and product use sector, the
agriculture and forestry and land use change sector, and the waste
sector. The publication of these standards provides a multi-scale, multi-
level, systematic theory and method explanation for CF in practical
applications. For example, Fort and Cerny (2018) used the CF analysis
method of LCA that is based on the ISO 14067 standard to calculate the
CF of natural gypsum and flue gas desulphurisation gypsum producers
in the Czech Republic. The results showed that the calcined gypsum of
flue gas desulphurisation gypsum produced 105.3 kg CO2/t, 25.2%
lower than natural gypsum. From the standpoint of CO2 generation,
calcination produces the highest proportion of CO2 emissions, ac-
counting for 55% and 72% of the total carbon dioxide emissions of
natural gypsum and flue gas desulphurisation gypsum, respectively.
Mohan (2018) used the CF method provided by IPCC (2006) to calcu-
late GHG emissions from residential, commercial, agricultural and
fishery sectors in India from 2005 to 2014. The results showed that the
residential sector had the highest GHG emissions, followed by agri-
culture, fisheries, and the commercial sector. In the residential sector,
liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, and fuelwood are major contributors
to emissions, while diesel is a major contributor to emissions in the
commercial, agricultural, and fisheries sectors.
Finally, according to centrality analysis, the largest centrality is the
Livestock’s long shadow (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2006). The
report pointed out that the GHG emissions from animal husbandry
accounted for 18% of the total global emissions, which is higher than
are the emissions from the transportation industry. The report, Tackling
climate change through livestock, released by the FAO (Food and Agri-
culture Organization of the United Nations), pointed out that the GHG
emissions of the breeding industry accounted for 14.5% of the world
total emissions, and the annual CH4 emitted by the breeding industry
was equivalent to the carbon emissions produced by 1.44 × 109 t
petroleum (FAO, 2013a). Research by Robert and Jeff (2009) showed
that livestock and their by-products emitted at least 32.56 × 109 t CO2
equivalent (CO2eq) of GHG, accounting for 51% of world total emis-
sions, far exceeding the FAO’s previous estimates. Therefore, accurately
accounting for animal husbandry carbon emissions is the cornerstone of
formulating carbon emission reduction policies. The scope of ac-
counting for livestock husbandry CF includes not only the production of
livestock husbandry but also such aspects as feed cultivation, livestock
product processing, transportation, and consumption in animal hus-
bandry (Shi et al., 2017). China has a large population base, and, with
the improvement of people’s quality of life, the demand for dairy
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Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
products and meat products will increase constantly, and the scale of
livestock and poultry breeding will gradually expand. The GHG emis-
sion problem caused by this should not be underestimated. Hawkins
et al. (2016) combined FAO’s GHG data, production data, and agri-
cultural production, and scaled them according to the benchmarks in
the literature to estimate the time series of crop and livestock carbon
emission factors, so that the CF results for each country could be
compared. The framework can provide a set of carbon emission factors
for Chinese agricultural product import suppliers to determine the GHG
contained in China’s animal husbandry food imports. Tang et al. (2017)
used the carbon emission coefficient method to calculate carbon
emissions from animal husbandry in 14 prefectures (states, cities) in
Xinjiang, and established a carbon equity assessment model for live-
stock husbandry from two dimensions of production efficiency and
economic efficiency. The results showed that there is a large amount of
carbon emissions from ethnic minority areas and prefectures (states,
cities) rich in aquatic resources and low amounts of carbon emissions at
the level of prefectures (states, cities) where secondary and tertiary
industries are developed and water and grass resources are lacking. The
Gini coefficient of economic efficiency and the production efficiency of
carbon emissions from animal husbandry are 0.42 and 0.47, respec-
tively, and they are in an unfair state where there is a “large gap”.
3.4. Frontiers of CF research
The research frontiers of a field are reflected by the academic papers
actively cited by researchers and that can be used to describe the dy-
namic nature of the field (Li, 2015; Xu and Guo, 2012). Cluster Analysis
uses the pedigree diagram to express similarity, degree of dissimilarity,
and genetic relationship (Zhang and Zhuo, 2011). Citespace software
was used in co-citation cluster analysis of the publications downloaded
from the WoS core database. By selecting the “Clustering” function in
the “Cluster” menu and setting the time span from 2008 to 2018, an
overall integrated network publications co-citation time zone knowl-
edge mapping was generated. The Citespace parameter has the Years
Per Slice set to 1, the Node Types set to Cited Reference, the cut mode
selected as Pathfinder, and the pruning sliced networks and others are
default settings.
The 10 most co-cited papers with different emphasis can be ob-
tained from Fig. 7 and Table 6. They are divided mainly into three
categories. Firstly, international trade makes the links between dif-
ferent regions of the world closer, and GHG emissions in trade have
increasingly attracted widespread attention from the international
community. For example, Davis and Caldeira (2010) proposed a CO2
emission inventory based on global consumption and a calculation
model based on energy consumption and carbon intensity to measure
the CO2 emissions associated with the consumption of goods and ser-
vices in international trade. The results showed that 23% of global CO2
emissions, specifically 620 million tCO2, were traded internationally,
mainly from China and other developed countries’ emerging markets, in
2004. In developed countries, such as Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, the
UK, and France, more than 30% of consumption emissions come from
imports, and many European countries had net imports of 4 tCO2/
person in 2004. In contrast, 22.5% of Chinese CO2 emissions were net
exported to consumers in other countries in 2004.
Secondly, the innovation of the CF method and actively explore the
best application of CF in specific contexts are focused. Finnveden et al.
(2009) reviewed the latest developments in LCA methods and com-
mented on the use of the IO-LCA model to evaluate product or service
CF to help eliminate Process-based LCA (PLCA) calculation errors,
which are due to the inability to include horizontal truncation errors
caused by non-physical inputs, such as labour and capital, and vertical
truncation errors, caused by time, manpower, and material resources,
that fail to incorporate the environmental impact of each input from
resource extraction to product production in the accounting process.
Then, Hybrid LCA combines PLCA and IO-LCA can eliminate truncation
Y. Yang and G. Meng Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Fig. 7. Network of co-cited references, a category usually represents either the research frontier or the topic, while the structure and composition of the literature
clustering knowledge mapping represent the changes in the corresponding research topics.

errors and enhance the specificity of specific evaluation objects, it can
also include the use and scrap stages of products in the scope of the
evaluation (Wang et al., 2015).
Finally, the discrimination and definition of the CF theory concept
are analysed. Because the theoretical concept must be defined ration-
ally, clearly, and consistently, this involves not only the measurement
boundary of the CF but also the theoretical bases and constraints of the
calculation method, in addition to the accuracy and scientific validity of
the calculation result (Geng et al., 2010). There are two major con-
troversies about the concept of CF in academic and practical circles.
First, the research object of CF is whether CO2 emissions or all GHG
emissions can be expressed by CO2eq, for example, Peters (2010) be-
lieves that CF should be included in the impact of climate change
caused by other gases, even including all factors, such as land-use
change and surface reflectivity, that affect the Global Warming Poten-
tial (GWP). Other radiative forcing factors should have even been

Table 6
Top 10 cited references in carbon footprint domain.
Citation Author Title Year

Citespace WoS

147 493 Hertwich EG Carbon footprint of nations: a global, trade-linked analysis 2009
78 513 Davis SJ Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions 2010
74 563 Wiedmann T Examining the global environmental impact of regional consumption activities - Part 2: Review of input-output models for the 2007
assessment of environmental impacts embodied in trade
71 216 Galli A Integrating ecological, carbon and water footprint into a “Footprint Family” of indicators: Definition and role in tracking human 2012
pressure on the planet
71 / Wiedmann T A definition of carbon footprint 2008
66 483 Peters G P CO2 embodied in international trade with implications for global climate policy 2008
65 195 Weber CL Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint 2008
65 159 Finkbeiner M Carbon footprinting-opportunities and threats 2009
62 174 Minx JC Input-output analysis and carbon footprinting: an overview of application 2009
61 1019 Finnveden G Recent developments in life cycle assessment 2009
60 188 Weidema BP Carbon footprint - a catalyst for life cycle assessment? 2008
58 380 Peters GP From production-based to consumption-based national emission inventories 2008

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Y. Yang and G. Meng
contained by some scholars proposed on CF. According to Peters, the
wake clouds generated by aircraft at high latitudes have an effect on
climate change in some regions that is 2–4 times that of CO2 emissions.
Therefore, the radiative forcing effect of non-carbon emissions cannot
be ignored when considering climate change (Peters, 2010). Moreover,
CF is characterised using either ecological land area units or physical
units of weight. For example, the “The 2008 Living Planet Report”
shows that the global per capita EF is 2.7 gha, while the CF is 1.41 gha
(World Wild Fund For Nature, 2008). It can be seen that the future of CF
research will focus on the construction of CF theoretical concepts and
continuously improve the connotation of CF. This not only determines
the CF calculation method and research boundary but also can effec-
tively avoid double counting, and, thus, can provide targeted emission
reduction measures and suggestions.
3.5. Features of CF research
Citespace’s log-likelihood ratio (LLR) clustering labelling algorithm
extracts research terms that emphasise research features. Silhouette
value is an index of network homogeneity. The closer to 1, the higher
the network homogeneity. When the Silhouette value is 0.7, the clus-
tering result has high reliability, and the clustering result above 0.5 is
reasonable. If the Silhouette value is infinite, the number of clusters is
usually 1. This result is not meaningful for cluster analysis. The CF
research literature has grown significantly since 2008, mainly focusing
on cluster #0, multi-region input-output model (MRIO); cluster #1, CF;
cluster #2, design; cluster #3, food consumption pattern; cluster #4,
milk; cluster #5, conterminous; cluster #6, humanity; cluster #7, cor-
porate environmental indicator; cluster #8, surface boundary layer;
cluster #9, information resource; and cluster #10, Great Lakes’ region
(Fig. 8).
Table 7 shows that the largest cluster, #0, has a size of 43 and a
Silhouette value of 0.732, the label of the LLR algorithm is a MRIO. The
most representative authors are Munoz and Wiedmann, who focus on
Fig. 8. The timeline-view of the co-cited references cluster.
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Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
the CF caused by international trade. For example, Muñoz and
Steininger (2010) used the MRIO model to calculate the CF of Austria
from 1997 to 2004 based on the consumption-based principle (CBP).
The results showed that, in 1997, the CO2 emission-responsibility of
CBP was 36% larger than that of the Production-Based Principle (PBP),
with an annual increasing trend. In 2004, the CBP index was 44% larger
than PBP. Regarding the location of carbon emissions, final demand
cost per euro of Austria in 2014, approximately two-thirds of CO2
emissions occurred outside Austria. Approximately one-fourth of CO2
emissions from imports came from non-Annex I countries in 1997, this
ratio increased to one-third in 2004. Because of the differences between
the CBP and PBP, the current CF accounting bases need to be recon-
sidered to properly allocate CO2 responsibility. Wiedmann et al. (2010)
used the MRIO model to measure the CF of the UK from 1992 to 2004.
The results showed that the GHG emissions contained in the UK’s in-
ternational trade are mainly characterised by the intermediate and final
demand of the import destination. The GHG emissions caused by con-
sumers has increased yearly, and the gap between producers and con-
sumers has gradually widened. The net emissions of CO2 from British
producers’ import increased from 4.3% to a maximum of 20% from
1992 to 2002. In 2004, the total CF in the UK was estimated at 730 Mt
CO2 and 934 Mt CO2eq.
The latest major cluster, #6, has a scale of 15, and a Silhouette value
of 0.836, and the label of the LLR algorithm is humanity (Table 7).
Scholars have noted that there is no single index that can fully monitor
human impact on the environment and assess sustainable development.
Laurent et al. (2012) calculated the life-cycle influencing factors, such
as energy production, material production, and waste management,
associated with approximately 4000 different products and analysed
the correlation between CF and 13 other influencing factors and found
that, in particular, the environmental impacts related to the emission of
toxic substances often do not coexist with the effects of climate change.
Under this circumstance, CF cannot fully explain the negative impact of
products on the environment. Focusing on the environmental aspects of
Y. Yang and G. Meng Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125

Table 7
Brief summary of the co-cited references cluster by using Citespace’s LLR clustering labelling algorithm extracts research terms that emphasise research features.
Silhouette value is an index of network homogeneity; if the index closer to 1, the higher the network homogeneity. When the Silhouette value is 0.7, the clustering
result has high reliability, and the clustering result above 0.5 is reasonable.
Cluster Size Silhouette Year Lable(LLR) Representative author

0 43 0.732 2009 multi-region input–output model Wiedmann T; Munoz, P.

1 24 0.708 2009 carbon footprint Iribarren D; Laurent A
2 24 0.825 2006 design Shenoy UV; Pekala LM
3 20 0.872 2005 food consumption pattern Xue XB; Nilsson K
4 19 0.808 2008 milk Ridoutt BG; Eady S
5 15 0.99 2004 conterminous Xiao JF; Fox AM.
6 15 0.836 2012 humanity Hoekstra AY; SteenOlsen, K
7 14 0.693 2010 corporate environmental indicator GerbensLeenes W; Herva M
8 13 0.964 2003 surface boundary layer Baum KA; Lindroth A
9 12 0.846 2009 information resource Chen ZM; Hui M
10 11 0.683 2009 great lakes region Peters GP; Larsen HN
11 7 1 2009 canopy height Simard M; Dolan KA
12 7 1 2004 market issue Saunders C

Fig. 9. The carbon footprint research framework from the perspective of government and market.

CF management, it is possible to ignore other environmental hazards,
such as chemical pollution, after the product has been “green” opti-
mised. As a result, the focus of CF research has gradually evolved to-
ward the integration of footprint indicators. The most representative
authors are Hoekstra and Steen-Olsen. Hoekstra and Wiedmann (2014)
published an article in Science reviewing the development history of
ecological footprint (EF), CF, and water footprint (WF), proposed the
concept of the maximum sustainable footprint, which provides a re-
ference for the scientific assessment of the sustainable level of human
activities. Steen-Olsen et al. (2012) combined the CF, land footprint
(LF), and WF to measure environmental pressures caused by con-
sumption in the European Union (EU). The result shows that CF, LF, and
WF caused by consumption per citizen of the EU in 2004 were 13.3 t
CO2eq, 2.53 gha, and 179 m3 respectively, while the global average was
5.7 t CO2eq, 1.23 gha, and 163 m3, respectively. Therefore, the EU has
transferred these three environmental pressures to other countries
through trade.
It is worth noting that the #3food consumption pattern is a topic of
high concern from the China government to the public in recent years,
but relevant scientific research is still in its infancy. Internationally,
reducing food waste in food consumption patterns is considered by the
international community as being one of the strategic options for
addressing food security and climate change. Therefore, there are many
relevant international studies about the associated CF. Kramer et al.
(1999) studied the GHG emissions from the food life cycle in the
Netherlands. Their results showed that the CO2 emission model is very
close to the household expenditure model. Since then, there have been
various studies of GHG emissions for each supply chain link throughout
the food life cycle, such as food waste carbon emissions at the con-
sumption terminal of the catering industry, carbon emissions of food
waste reductions and disposal programs, and disposal plans for dif-
ferent types of foods. The 2013 FAO report pointed out that the annual
waste of food produces a CF equivalent to 3.3 × 109 t CO2 (Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2013b). However, the application of methods
such as LCA requires comprehensive consideration of CF boundary
settings and conditions, such as the impact of food sources, cultivation,
and planting on CF, otherwise the results will be unfair. At present, the
CF method regarding food loss and waste in China is still to be im-
proved, and there is an urgent need to establish a food carbon emission
inventory, especially for the CF caused by the resource and environ-
mental effects associated with food loss and waste. Therefore, China
should both learn from and draw on international experience, conduct
systematic research, and make substantial contributions to a Chinese
low-carbon strategy.

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Y. Yang and G. Meng
4. Discussion
4.1. Enlightenment of the results to CF
By refining the results of KCA and co-cited citation cluster analysis,
it can be seen that the results of the two kinds of analysis are partially
overlapped. Reviewing the original literatures of each cluster, classi-
fying the literatures of clustering, integrating the nodal information of
KCA and co-cited citation cluster analysis, classifying CF research into
government and market perspective. A comprehensive CF research
framework is constructed by combing the literature and corresponding
subject words from different perspectives (Fig. 9). The high-frequency
words in KCA include CF, LCA, performance, management, and sus-
tainability. Among these, performance, management and sustainability
are very important concepts, and they are also the basic advantages and
internal mechanisms of CF development under the market mechanism.
The regional decomposition of the responsibility for emission re-
duction under the leadership of the government requires the scientific
evaluation of CF in various regions, and also the rational formulation of
regional differentiated carbon emission reduction policy objectives to
ensure the fairness and efficiency of economic and social development,
for example, Gao and Li (2014) took into account the cost of emission
reduction, the cost of supervision and the cost of punishment, and
adopted the optimal programming model of regulation. They analysed
the optimal cost efficiency of regulators of two policy tools, namely,
command-control carbon emission standards and market-motivated
carbon trading permits. The results showed that the socio-economic
costs can be optimised by regulating the marginal cost of carbon
emission standards, monitoring the change of probability, and im-
plementing carbon emissions’ trading. Wang and Gao (2016) used a
non-radial directional distance function approach to measure the gap
between total factor carbon emissions’ efficiency and the technology
gap ratio in China from 2011 to 2014. The results showed that the
single principle of fairness and efficiency could not guarantee the ra-
tionality, stability, and sustainability of carbon emission reduction in
different regions. A dynamic mixing mechanism based on the principle
of fairness and efficiency should be adopted to reduce carbon emissions
between provinces in China. At the same time, the country issued
corresponding laws and regulations to guide enterprises in effectively
carrying out energy saving and emission reduction, which can not only
force enterprises to absorb environmental protection technology and
continue to optimise the industrial structure but also automatically
make social investment toward the high-tech environmental protection
industry. So far, the EU has made more than 700 laws related to en-
vironmental and resource protection, in addition to basic laws on en-
vironmental quality standards. In 1990, Finland introduced a carbon
tax to reduce GHG emissions represented by CO2. Finland is considered
to be the first country to introduce a carbon tax. In 1969, the Nether-
lands imposed a tax on surface water pollution. In 1995, a special Dutch
Green Commission was set up to make recommendations on the im-
plementation of a green tax system. At present, the taxes that are aimed
at environmental protection in the Netherlands have been classified
into air pollution tax, sewage tax, fuel tax, and others. In the early stage
of controlling the ecological environment in China, the government
adopted the method of “who pollutes who governs, who pollutes who
pays the bill”, which requires enterprises to pay for ecological damage.
However, this approach has lagged behind the needs of social devel-
opment. Because sewage charges imposed on enterprises are far from
comparable to the costs of governance, this can lead to governments
using public resources to tackle environmental pollution in some areas.
Therefore, in 2018, the environmental protection tax was formally in-
troduced, which marked the exit of the sewage charge system, which
had been in place for nearly 40 years, from the country’s stage. Moving
from the sewage charge to the environmental protection tax is more
than just a simple change of wording, the tax is more rigid than was the
charge, and the increased tax payment arising from greater emissions
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Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
restricts an enterprise’s production. The scientific and reasonable
measurement of the quantity of pollutant emissions has become an
urgent task, and CF, as an evaluation index of carbon emission activities
to air pollution, has become the focus of attention in both practice and
academia.
Climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a
market problem worthy of attention. Enterprise managers must view
climate change as market change, because relative laws and regulations
affect key factors in business strategy, such as production status and
investment decisions (Wei et al., 2012). Under the market mechanism,
the first point of emphasis is to take the market as the leader and solve
the demand and supply of ecological services to the public, enterprises,
and industries through a trading mechanism such as carbon emission
rights. Carbon labels, for example, use a quantitative index to mark the
total emissions of GHG over the life cycle on the product label. This can
inform consumers of a product’s CF and guide consumers to choose
lower-carbon products, thus reducing the CF and mitigating climate
change (Cohen and Vandenbergh, 2012). The second point is to de-
termine the CF measurement boundaries of different industries. For
example, under the implementation of carbon emission rights’ trading,
the traditional environmental audit procedures do not fully consider the
environmental risk. The definition of the system boundary should be
consistent with the research goal, and the industry level mainly in-
volves either the enterprise’s or the organisation’s system boundary.
GHG protocol (2004) mainly determines the organisational and op-
erational boundaries. The organisational boundary is mainly de-
termined according to the control rights of the company and the pro-
portion of equity. The operation boundary mainly classifies the GHG’s
emissions in different ranges, ISO 140641 (2006) is basically consistent
with the determination of the system boundary (Bai et al., 2014).
4.2. Methodological choices found in CF literature
Based on the analysis of the knowledge base and the research
frontier, it is concluded that there are currently two main methods for
calculating CF in the world. The first is LCA, and the second is IPCC.
According to the basic principle of LCA, there are two models: first, a
“bottom-up” model based on PA (Process analysis), and, second, a “top-
down” model based on IO (Wang et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2018). ISO
14040 (2006) and ISO 14044 (2006) are the basic standard of LCA,
which is divided into four stages: objective and scope definition, LCA
inventory analysis, impact assessment, and result interpretation. The
definition of objective and scope defines the boundaries and standard of
the research object and the object of analysis. At this stage, the relevant
regulations of international standards are generally consistent. Life
cycle inventory analysis includes the determination of material input
and corresponding GHG output in the life cycle. Life Cycle Impact As-
sessment converts gas species with different greenhouse gases into
emissions equivalent to the CO2 greenhouse effect. The result inter-
pretation is used to analyse CF accounting results, draw conclusions,
and put forward countermeasures and suggestions. This standard pro-
vides the basic principles and guidance for CF accounting and the
methodological framework of accounting. The Global Guidance Prin-
ciples for LCA Database (2011) provide a reference for different stages
of the CF accounting process, especially the data collection and calcu-
lation process. It is also a specific standard for life cycle inventory,
enriching the content of LCA. At the national level, the IPCC (2006)
provides basic guidance for the establishment of GHG inventories. Each
algorithm has its own international standards and applicable condi-
tions, and these international standards complement each other. For
example, the emission factor database in IPCC (2006) and GWP pro-
vides an important reference for the measurement of CF at both the
enterprise and the organisational level, and also at the product level
(Fig. 10).
Y. Yang and G. Meng
Fig. 10. Framework of carbon footprint research methods.
5. Conclusions
The formation and development of the CF concept has a profound
background and ideological foundation. The challenges of sustainable
development, the change of global climate patterns, and the improve-
ment of the level of scientific research are the main factors that de-
termine the research hotspots, frontier, characteristics, and features of
CF. By using Citespace visualisation software, the research results of CF
from 2008 to 2018 are analysed from the characteristics of CF research,
research hotspots, knowledge base, research frontiers, and research
features, and the vein of development of the CF research framework and
research method from the perspectives of both government and market
is established.
China is the second largest producer of CF research literature after
the USA, which shows that the way in which China harmonises the
relationship between ecological environment and economic develop-
ment is increasingly attractive to scholars around the world. As the
largest developing country in the world, the manner in which China
addresses ecological problems in accordance with the “innovative, co-
ordinated, green, open and sharing” development concept is con-
tinuously receiving international attention and becoming an important
topic, not only now but also for a long time to come.
More attention will be paid to issues such as carbon sequestration,
land use changes, energy consumption, industry ecology, buildings,
animal husbandry, and international trade. The results of research show
that the study of CF is beginning to integrate with the direction of
“ecology-environment-economy-society”. This shows that CF research
should not only break through the single description, but also improve
the level of application of CF interpretation and planning practice and
develop toward a diversified research direction. For example, as one of
the factors affecting CF, people’s daily consumption mode is used to
explain the space-time process of “ecology-environment-economy-so-
ciety”. CF and policy-oriented spatial-temporal behaviour processes and
the laws revealed by the spatial metaphors behind them will also be
14
Ecological Indicators 112 (2020) 106125
more valuable in urban planning, traffic design, and the construction of
intelligent cities. In addition, the research hotspots of CF have an ob-
vious interdisciplinary nature, which involves sustainable development,
resources, ecological environment, and trade. From the perspective of
the research hotspots, research into these topics began early in devel-
oped countries and have good continuity there, while, in China, such
research began late and overlaps partly with the international research
themes.
IPCC SRES, ISO 14040 (2006) and Livestock’s long shadow constitute
the knowledge bases of CF. IPCC SRES provides a CF research direction
from the perspectives of regional and industry technological innovation
potential, policies related to climate change mitigation measures,
comparability of research results, sustainable development, and equity.
ISO 14040 (2006) and ISO 14044 (2006), respectively, provide the
basic framework and principles of LCA and technical requirements.
Based on this, different levels of CF accounting standards have
emerged, such as products, enterprises, organisations, countries, and
regions. With the release of Livestock’s long shadow, people realised that
GHG emissions from animal husbandry were higher than were those
from transportation and accounted for 18% of the global emissions of
GHG. Moreover, the scope of the accounting included not only the
production of animal husbandry, but also the poultry products,
planting, transportation, and consumption of animal husbandry.
Therefore, the CF of animal husbandry has gradually become the focus
of research.
The latest CF research frontier and research features focus on the
innovation of CF, CF method produced in international trade, such as
the combination of LCA and IO, which not only covers the whole pro-
cess better but also reduces the truncation error and coincidence, and
simplifies the calculation items. The combination of global net primary
productivity (NPP) and IPCC emission factors exerts the advantage of
stable IPCC parameters. Using NPP to reflect differences in the energy
productivity of different types of land can help to increase the veracity
and accuracy of evaluation results. The extended MRIO model can
quantitatively measure can quantitatively measure the indirect CF of
the supply chain of departments and regions. This provides a research
idea for the regional distribution and transfer of environmental emis-
sions. At the same time, the MRIO model is also helpful in calculating
the consumption CF of regional residents. To evaluate the relationship
between the ecological environment and the economic social system, a
complementary index system of multiple indexes, such as EF, WF, CF
and city development index, was set up. Secondly, this paper analyses
the concept of CF theory. Because it not only determines the accounting
method and research scope of CF, but also can effectively avoid double
calculation. So that the countermeasures and suggestions for emission
reduction can be put forward pertinently. Moreover, as a typical sample
of CF research, the Chinese low-carbon economy and green develop-
ment will be the frontier of future research and the best place to study
this subject, especially in relation to how China uses the market me-
chanism under the leadership of the government-according to the un-
ique characteristics of economy, society, ecology, organisation, policies,
regulations, and the market-to formulate regional differential carbon
emission reduction policy objectives to ensure the fairness and effi-
ciency of economic and social development, the equitable distribution
of regional ecological resources, natural resources’ management and
other ecological environment strategic planning.
Citespace requires the same citation ratio for papers published at
different time points. As a result, the most recent papers will not be
included in the study sample, which, together with the time lag re-
sulting from the publication cycle of papers, will reduce calculation
accuracy, causing errors in the results.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Yi Yang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Funding acquisition,
Project administration, Writing - review & editing. Guanfei Meng:
Y. Yang and G. Meng
Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation,
Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing -
review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation
of China Western Project (15XJL009), Science and Technology
Planning Project of Xi’an (2017109SF/RK003-(5)), Soft Science
Research Program of Shaanxi-Joint Project (2018KRLY07).
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